Soup and Salutes
by Trillian Astra
Summary: Written for a challenge. Featuring confused!Jack, pregnant!Gwen and the Brigadier. Entirely random. No spoilers. Disclaimer: Most certainly not mine.


**A/N:** **This is written for a challenge posted by I've Lost My Profile Page. The challenge was:**

**Multiple**

**Do a story with multiple Companions.**

**Req: Cannot have travelled together/with the same Doctor. No dialogue. Soup must be mentioned once.**

**Characters are: Jack Harkness, Ace McShane, The Brigadier.**

**Disclaimer: Oh, if Doctor Who was mine, things would be very, very different… so it's possibly a good thing that it isn't.**

Jack walked down the street, looking into every café and shop selling takeaway food that he passed. He silently cursed UNIT for insisting on the meeting being in London, and himself for taking with him the one member of his team who was a) pregnant and b) still at the "insane cravings" stage of pregnancy. Gwen was back at the hotel, waiting for him to get back from the Craving Supplies Run. Just after she found out she was pregnant, she had spoken to Rhys, and then Rhys had told Jack in no uncertain terms that he didn't want Gwen doing anything dangerous until well after the baby was born.

Jack had had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself retorting that if that was the case, she might as well not come to work for the next year at all.

That day several weeks earlier had resulted in Gwen storming into his office after the memo from UNIT arrived, demanding to go with him. Apparently the lack of, as Rhys put it, "dangerous stuff", was driving her crazy, and all she wanted at that point was to do something other than paperwork, making coffee and ordering takeaways. Jack had eventually agreed just to get her to calm down. He'd also asked Ianto to get her some chocolate (which always seemed to help) and a carton of tomato juice (her primary craving that week).

He just wished she was still craving tomato juice. He could probably have got hold of tomato juice easily. But no, yesterday she'd started craving _soup_ of all things. Specifically, either mushroom or chicken. And it had to be fresh. Which was why he was currently trawling every shop he could find for takeaway cartons of either variety.

Eventually, he found a supermarket café that sold servings of fresh soup – in the right varieties, mercifully – in cups like the ones used for hot drinks. He quickly purchased a serving of each, and started the long walk back to the hotel. On the way out of the supermarket, he almost collided with a girl wearing a leather jacket that was too big for her, and carrying a very full-looking rucksack. Both the bag and the jacket were covered with patches and badges. Jack opened his mouth to apologise, but the girl just smiled and kept moving. As she turned to walk away, he thought there was something familiar about her… but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. She was heading away by then, so he shrugged and started walking again.

He was passing the UNIT office near the hotel when he stopped abruptly. Emerging from the building was an elderly, dignified man in military uniform, accompanied by people he recognised as being very high-up in the UNIT hierarchy. But it was the old man that surprised him – it was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a _legend_ among UNIT staff. There were rumours among the rank and file that he had actually met _different incarnations_ of the Doctor. Jack had never seen them together, or heard the Doctor mention him, but he had a feeling it was true. He only realised that he was staring when he saw that the Brigadier was looking at him oddly. Snapping out of it, Jack straightened up (as close to "standing to attention" as he got) and saluted. The Brigadier smiled… though they'd never met, Lethbridge-Stewart must have recognised him from the files. The old man, accompanied by a younger man who must have been either his assistant or a member of UNIT staff assigned to take care of him, headed towards a car that was waiting by the roadside. Just before he got into the car, the Brigadier looked back at Jack and gave him a small salute in return. After the car had pulled away, Jack took a deep breath and kept walking. Today really was turning into a strange day, even by his standards.


End file.
